


you make me feel like 1996

by who_won_the_race_back_home



Category: DC's Legends of Tomorrow (TV)
Genre: F/M, Fluff, Mild Smut, inaccurate recollections of the plot of Jurassic Park
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-13
Updated: 2019-05-13
Packaged: 2020-03-02 21:34:35
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,388
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18819451
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/who_won_the_race_back_home/pseuds/who_won_the_race_back_home
Summary: Nate and Zari finally get a proper second date only partially inspired by their new dragon companion.





	you make me feel like 1996

**Author's Note:**

> Reminder: even if it is not explicitly mentioned, Nate is always trans, as it is written in canon.
> 
> Title from the sickeningly sweet [1996 by The Unlovables](https://theunlovables.bandcamp.com/track/1996). Seriously, why aren't all fluff fics titled after Unlovables songs??? And this is barely edited because I wanted to get it up before the new episode airs and canon inevitably ruins half of this.

It was the most ridiculous thing Nate had ever heard. And as a time traveler whose father made a deal with a demon to build a theme park for magical creatures, that was an impressive feat.

“You’ve never seen Jurassic Park?” Nate said, probably a little too loud, as he stopped dead in his tracks.

Zari rolled her eyes, turning back to grab Nate’s shoulders in an attempt to calm him. “You are already at 11 right now, and this warrants, like, a 3 at best.”

Nate’s shoulders slumped as he took a breath. She was right, it wasn’t the total end of the world. “It’s just, this is a travesty.”

“It’s a movie, Nate”

Okay, except it was the end of the world.

“One of the best of all time!” Suddenly, he couldn’t help himself, he was back at 11.

“I saw one of the later ones when I was a kid,” Zari said in an obvious attempt to placate him. “Jurassic World 3? I think?”

“Wait, there’s going to be a third one? Nevermind, doesn’t matter. Jurassic World was a piss poor attempt at recreating the magic of the original. The dinosaurs looked terrible, plus Chris Pratt sucked in it.”

There was a rant building, he could feel the momentum of it as he pointed a finger in the air, ready to lecture. But Zari put a finger to his lips, and the sudden intimacy of it quelled whatever Chris Pratt fueled animosity he was about to release.

“I was 8, I didn’t have a whole lot of autonomy about the movies I saw.” Zari cautiously removed her finger, and Nate stayed quiet. “If it helps, I don’t remember liking it.”

Nate cracked a wide grin. “It does, yeah.”

Zari rolled her eyes again and shoved him playfully. They were at the Bureau visiting Ellie, the dragon artist formerly known as Wickstable. Once she had hatched, Mona had somehow figured out how to sex a dragon, and determined she was a girl. While Nate was acutely aware of the irony in renaming something based on the sex it was born, she also wasn’t a Wickstable. Zari and Charlie was kind in humoring him, but everyone else on the team wasn’t, and they made it very clear that it was a terrible name. No one objected when he started calling the dragon Ellie instead, after Laura Dern’s character in Jurassic Park. It fit a lot better.

Zari bumped Nate’s shoulder walking close down the hall, being together, but not together together.Or something. The last couple weeks had been exhausting: getting Ray back and sending Neron to hell, figuring out what to do with all the creatures and the Time Bureau, Ellie hatching, and—it had been a lot all at once. And Nate and Zari hadn’t really had a lot of time to figure out whatever it was they were doing. There was excitement in the few stolen kisses they had managed, tucked away in the cargo bay of the Waverider or a corner of the lab, whispering through a debrief (until Ava or Sara half-heartedly yelled at them like they were back in school), but they hadn’t gotten more than ten minutes alone since hooking up in the lab while trying not to freeze to death, let alone had time to go on a date not filled with Nazis.

Which, Nate figured, maybe there was finally that opportunity.

Though before he could ask, or even really figure out what he wanted to say, they entered Ellie’s pen, a repurposed, fireproofed, containment cell formerly home to a very ornery phoenix. It had been less than two weeks since Ellie hatched, and she was already the size of a mastiff, with the energy of a border collie puppy on top of it. She had taken a liking to Nate and Zari almost immediately, so maybe there was something to those books and she knew they were the ones who had taken care of her. Or maybe she was like a duck and imprinted on whoever was closest when she hatched.

Either way, Nate loved her, but it was becoming less and less endearing every time she enthusiastically jumped on him, especially now that she could knock him over like it was nothing. He barely had time to brace for the impact before Ellie had barreled straight into him, toppling them both to the floor.

It wasn’t really what he expected from fatherhood.

Although, Nate guessed he had never expected it in the first place, so an overeager dragon made about as much sense as anything. It just hurt a lot more than he assumed a human baby would.

From underneath the 150 pound overjoyed weight on his chest, Nate could hear Zari laughing, and she had stopped the pretense of trying to hide it days ago, so it was open and lovely. Nate was glad was finally getting to hear it all the time, even if it was mostly at his expense.

“Come on, El,” she said as her laughter petered out, tugging at Ellie’s collar, finally getting her off Nate. “Can’t kill him yet.”

The air filling his lungs was relief, and Nate took a deep breath, continuing to lie on the floor. This was probably as good a time as any.

“I was gonna ask, before Ellie—you know, whatever. Do you wanna come over and watch Jurassic Park?” Nate wheezed out.

“Are you trying to Netflix and chill me?” Zari asked, a wryness in her voice like she was trying to hide that she might not be totally opposed to the idea.

It was a little difficult to take her seriously, holding back a baby dragon by its sparkly purple collar, an unironic gift courtesy of Mona from the very ironic baby shower Sara had insisted on throwing. Nate finally managed to sit up, reflexively putting his hands up in defense as Ellie happily lunged, but Zari somehow managed to hold on, keeping Ellie from knocking him over once again.

“No, I’m trying to Netflix and—Jesus, Ellie!” Nate yelped as she lunged again.

Mona had shown him a hidden stash of Milkbones (apparently dragons loved Milkbones) that she kept behind one of the panels in the wall. He scrambled to his feet to find them and tossed a handful into the corner, Ellie immediately racing off, nearly taking Zari to the ground with her as the collar was tugged from Zari’s hand. As Zari stumbled past, Nate grabbed her, keeping her from falling over. It was the closest they had been in what felt like days.

The temptation to kiss her was strong, but there were cameras stationed in every corner. And while they weren’t trying to hide, the thought of one of his agents, or god forbid, Gary, watching them really took the romance out of it.

“C’mon, I’ll make popcorn, or get take out or whatever, and we can watch one of the best movies of the 90s. You can meet Ellie’s namesake.”

Zari narrowed her eyes at him, before letting a smile tug at the edges of her mouth.“Both and you got a deal.”

Nate couldn’t help but beam. “Both it is then.”

Just as he was about to kiss Zari, Gary and his creepy cameras be damned, Nate heard the tell tale sign of claws on concrete, and didn’t have enough time to react before Ellie had leapt up to lick a broad stripe of dragon slobber up his face.

“I’ll come by in a little while. Text me when you’re cleaned up,” Zari said with a grimace, patting him on the chest.

* * *

 

A couple hours later, Nate was showered, food was obtained, and his apartment was respectably clean.

Just as he finished setting up the take-out on the coffee table, he heard the hum of a portal opening behind him. On the long list of weird things about dating as a time traveling superhero, someone being able to portal into his apartment without knocking was right at the top. Nate had never realized how vital those few extra seconds to take a breath before opening the door were.

But there Zari was, in his kitchen, fiddling with her hands like she was nervous. She looked gorgeous, still in the same clothes as before, hair pulled back. She looked like herself, though Nate wasn’t sure why he ever worried she would try to be different for his sake. But still, it made him feel like she was comfortable around him, and that was one of the best feelings in the world.

“Hey,” she said.

“Hey.” Nate came over to kiss her on the cheek. “So this, uh-this is my place. Welcome.”

Zari smiled and blushed a bit, averting her eyes under the pretense of scanning the place, lingering a long moment on the picture of the two of them and Amaya that sat on his TV stand. Nate knew Zari had the same one sitting on her desk back on the Waverider. Someday they’d have to talk about that. Just, not right now.

“I thought you’d have more books.”

The cheap shelves bookending his TV stand were pretty bare, just some of his favorites and a few reference books that were his go to for checking changes to the timeline. Despite moving off the ship, between the time he spent on the Waverider and at the bureau, he wasn’t at home all that often, and had barely any time to settle in.

“Uh, don’t open that closet,” he said, pointing towards a nearby door where a large stack of moving boxes still sat, unopened. “I never really had time to unpack everything. And there’s so many more boxes of them in my mom’s basement.”

“You still use your parent’s house for storage?”

“Have you seen DC storage prices? I may be getting paid now, but not that much.”

That got him a chuckle. “At least you’re getting paid.”

“And I am trying to work on that. Government bureaucracy is just—it's really, really confusing. There’s like, three agencies we have to go through just to order office supplies.” He pointed to the spread of Thai food and a popcorn bowl. “So, I may not have a salary for you, but, I do have take out and popcorn, as promised,”

“Guess I’ll take what I can get then,” Zari said with a smile, moving to sit on the couch and make herself a plate.

Nate started the movie and they ate in comfortable silence. He tried as hard as he could to gauge Zari’s reaction without being too obvious about it, but aside from a warm “oh, hey” when Ellie Sattler was introduced, she didn’t seem to have strong feelings one way or the other. Finally, they got to the big T-Rex scene in the thunderstorm and Nate thought at least that would warrant something.

“Nate, you’re practically vibrating,” Zari said with a little laugh. “Just tell me whatever it is you want to say.”

So maybe he had been a little more obvious than he thought.

“Okay, so that thing is, like, the biggest animatronic ever made for a movie and one of the guys who built it? He got stuck inside while they were putting it together and almost got killed by the hydraulics.”

“Shit.”

“I mean, but worth it though.” Nate gestured at the TV as the dinosaur roared and lightning flashed.

“Well, it’s better than CGI, I’ll give you that.”

“Oh my god, so much better. Honestly? They’re super realistic, I’ve met dinosaurs, and this movie really nails it.”

Zari chuckled fondly. “You may have mentioned that before. Once or twice.”

Nate hung his head sheepishly and quelled the urge to keep talking. Mostly, he didn’t want Zari to miss any of the movie, but also, after thirty some-odd years he had finally learned that no one really liked an unending stream of commentary while they tried to watch something.

But that didn’t keep him from glancing over at Zari as subtly as he could every few minutes. He had convinced himself it definitely wasn't the end of the world that she didn’t love it, Jurassic Park was no Indiana Jones or Star Wars, but he also wasn’t sure what he would do with someone who didn’t like cool dinosaur movies.

As they watched, their plates got shoved to the edge of the table and Nate propped his feet up. Zari tentatively slid closer, and Nate slung his arm over the back of the couch, offering the space against his side. She hesitated a second, and Nate caught her looking over at him out of the corner of his eye. But whatever hesitation she had vanished and she tucked in against him.

It made Nate felt invincible.

Even though he had seen Jurassic Park probably dozens of times, he still had visceral reactions to all his favorite scenes. He tried his best to keep it cool, but there was something about a dinosaur stampede that made him buzz with excitement.

“Look at that! This was made in 1993 and it still looks better than pretty much every movie made today.”

“You’re cute,” Zari said, quiet enough that if she weren't right against him, he probably wouldn’t have heard her.

There was a warmth that radiated from Nate’s chest, creeping up his neck to his face. Compliments had always made him a little self-conscious, but he knew how hard they were to come by with Zari, and he couldn’t help smiling, even as he kept his eyes on the movie.

Suddenly, Zari’s mouth was on his neck, gently, a kiss where it was easiest to reach. She paused for a moment, and Nate could feel her thinking. It was never easy to tell what she was feeling, but knowing _when_ she was feeling something had become much simpler. It didn’t take long for her to decide to shift positions and find a better angle.

She moved slowly up his throat, her mouth soft and uninsistent, pausing between each kiss to gauge Nate’s reaction. It was a truly desperate situation, because he definitely was enjoying it, but they were just about at his favorite part of the movie

“We’re almost at the velociraptor scene,” he said, voice tight with how wound up Zari was making him. “It’s iconic.”

Eyes still focused on the TV, he heard Zari feel around, lips on his neck, eventually finding the remote. She broke away from him just long enough to find and hit the pause button.

“We can watch it later.”

“But-“

“Are you serious?”

Nate was, a little. But then Zari had moved to suck gently at the spot right behind his ear and he quickly got his priorities in order, turning to capture her mouth in a kiss.

It was the first time since they had started doing whatever it was they were doing that there was no rush, no team meeting to get to, no demon to fight, no world to save. So Nate kissed her like he finally had all the time in the world.

They kissed slow and hot, just taking long minutes to make out like the teenagers neither of them ever really got to be, tongue and little teeth and maybe a bit sloppier than they would be proud to admit to. It didn’t take long before Nate turned closer to her, skimming his hand under her shirt to stroke the skin right above the waist of her jeans, thumb running right near her hip bone.

Zari tugged at Nate’s shirt as she moved to lay back on the couch, urging him down with her. They settled with Nate propped up and against her side, his thigh gently pressing between her legs. His free hand drifted up towards the top button of her shirt to slowly undo it, pausing a moment after to let Zari stop him if she wanted. Instead, she pressed herself up against his thigh and wrappeda hand around his neck, pulling him into another kiss as Nate blindly fumbled to undo more buttons.

He got about halfway, exposing enough skin to tempt him away from Zari’s mouth. Kissing a trail down her neck towards her chest, Nate felt her hum encouragement to keep moving down.

There wasn’t really a good way to get Zari’s bra off in their position, so Nate just tugged it down enough to expose the firm peak of her nipple. He only took a moment to admire Zari like this, and she looked incredible, flushed and wanting, before he took it into his mouth, swirling his tongue lightly over it.

Zari let out a little gasp and bucked her hips up again, trying to find friction, while Nate gently kneaded her other nipple with his thumb. The fingers in his hair tightened, keeping him firmly against her chest. Nate began to move his thigh in rhythm with her, trying to give what she wanted, as he kissed across her sternum. But Zari made a small noise of frustration and it was clear it wasn’t working.

Nate moved to toy with the button of her jeans. “Can I?” he whispered before kissing Zari again.

Nodding, Zari moved him out of the way, undoing the button and zipper enough that she could take Nate’s hand and slide it underneath her waistband until he was touching her. The angle wasn’t perfect, but Nate managed to find enough room to circle her clit with his fingers as she pressed up against his hand.

Zari’s kissing grew rougher, nipping at Nate’s lower lip with her teeth as her panting sped up with the flexing of his fingers. Only the sound of her breathing gave away that she was getting close. She was quiet, like the last time, the only time he had gotten to touch her before, tucked into the crook of Nate’s neck, breathing hot and fast against him. As he added pressure, she made the softest moan, almost entirely muffled, but the buck of her hips was tell enough.

It only took a few more strokes before she was stuttering into his hand, clutching at his sweater, whispering “fuck” over and over into his skin as he slowly helped her ride out her orgasm. Finally, her breathing began to even out and slow and Nate slid his hand back, resting it on her hip.

Zari stroked the hair at the base of Nate’s neck absentmindedly, a satisfied, slightly dazed smile on her face. Nate couldn’t help himself, he ducked down to kiss her, light and soft, feeling that smile against his lips.

Shuffling around, Nate rearranged them so Zari could lay against his chest, her arm lazily slung across his middle. It only took a few minutes for her to stretch up to kiss him again, a little more assertive, suggesting she wasn’t ready to be done with their night.

“Do you want to—?” Zari said, a bit of nervousness in her voice, as she glanced over Nate’s shoulder to the open door of his bedroom

“I mean, there’s like twenty more minutes left of the movie.” He looked at the TV, image still frozen where they had paused it however long ago.

The look on Zari’s face was one he had quickly figured out meant “seriously?” Which, he guessed it was a good sign she still wanted to hang around him despite how often she pulled that look in his direction.

“Velociraptors!” Nate exclaimed excitedly, as if it was a completely reasonable answer to the Zari’s unasked question.

“Nate, I am much more interested in you than the dinosaur movie,” Zari said, slowly and deliberately, as if he didn’t know what she meant.

“I—“ He didn’t actually have a response to that.

Zari slid off the couch to stand above him, hand outstretched to pull Nate up with her.

“How about this? We can watch the last twenty minutes later, like maybe, tomorrow morning.”

Nate blinked rapidly, eyes flitting between the TV and Zari, her hair tousled and shirt still half open, chest a little red from where his mouth had been. It was suddenly a very easy choice.

“Yeah, sounds good,” he said, quickly.

Zari laughed and tugged Nate up and with her towards his bedroom, making sure to click off the TV on his way.

**Author's Note:**

> I last watched Jurassic Park over 10 years ago, apologies to Steven Spielberg for not remembering a single goddamn thing that happens in that move other than the velociraptor scene. Though that story about the guy getting trapped in the T-Rex animatronic is true!
> 
> I'm over on [tumblr](http://angrypedestrian.tumblr.com) for all your Nate/Zari processing needs!


End file.
